2002 viper - need your thoughts

A

apex_shug

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First off, great website with tons of info! was always on the apex forum but just had a kid, so I sold the apex and bought the viper to keep me in the gam for a few years till the wife lets me have you know what back

With that said, bought a 2002 viper this weekend. 3200 miles, stock with 96 studs. very clean sled. came with extra belt, dolly, and cover. paid 2k. Seemed fair.

After reading some reviews, just want to make sure the only thing I need to look out for is the wiring harness.
Going to take the carbs off and clean them, maybe put a new drive bearing in it, and a set of slides.

also have a few more questions.
1) anyone running bender can and clutch with reeds worth the money? (seemed some say it was waste with no HP increase)
2) rear heat exchangers, a must or just do some ice scratchers with 50/50 for coolant do the trick?

anything else I am missing?


thanks in advance!
 
1- Raise the needles to fourth position or so. This is very important. There's lots of info just search viper needles.

2- check your powervalves for pull-throughs, and make sure adjusted correctly. There's also good procedures for adjusting them on this site.

-ALAWAYS run premium fuel

-unless your piping it or something I wouldn't worry too much about the rear cooler. keep an eye on it though. If your doing the drive bearing you should do all drive bearings while your at it. Chaincase, drive axle and jackshaft. Make sure you use loctite on jackshaft bearing retainer bacause its not pretty when it comes loose believe me.

- future things to think about would be a rear cooler and an srx tourqe limiter. My opinion is after market reeds are a waste of 400$. Heel clicker Clutching will really wake it up with something around a 50/40 helix...worth the dough. The can is a noise maker and nothing else. They sound pretty awesome though!
 
You will want to either find an SRX front left motor mount or torque arm kit or both. If the motor mount hasn't broken yet it will. The SRX style uses 3 bolts instead of 2 to attach the mount to the motor. The torque arm kit also helps and was stock on the SRX but there are several aftermarket options too.

A can sounds good but doesn't make your sled any faster, some on here would argue it slows you down.

The stock reeds are great but while you have the carbs off check them for chips or even broken pedals. They are easy to change and pretty cheap from Yamaha. When they are damaged it causes rough idle and hard starting especially when the motor is warm.

The most bang for your buck is clutching. The Heel Clicker set up seems pretty popular.

I recommend the rear heat exchanger. You may never have a problem but the one time the snow conditions are odd it may ruin your trip.

The Viper has plastic tunnel protectors, make sure they are not worn down or your tunnel will start to get chewed.

Clean and adjust your power valves and check for pull through.

Change your chaincase oil.

These are some of the things I have learned over the last 12 years and 9000 miles, obviously everyone has different conditions/experiences.
 
don't forget if your going to use the srx tourqe arm you can use srx specs for clutch alignment. Other than these simple things...you've got yourself a great sled
 
thanks for the help

went with the double pedal reeds from boysen, (very nice to work with and only $115, they suggested leaving the needle the same)
mounts are good from the ones I see, torque arm ordered, going to pull carbs and valves this weekend.

thanks for all the help

been on yamalube but I am thinking of running amsoil in it going forward. thoughts on this?
 
jaydougempire said:
don't forget if your going to use the srx tourqe arm you can use srx specs for clutch alignment. Other than these simple things...you've got yourself a great sled
Click to expand...
The specs for clutch alignment appears the same in the tech section. Is there something I'm missing here?
 
captnviper said:
The specs for clutch alignment appears the same in the tech section. Is there something I'm missing here?
Click to expand...

yep your right nevermind. i didnt realize they were the same I assumed the viper specs would allow for more movement. haha My Bad!
 
jaydougempire said:
captnviper said:
The specs for clutch alignment appears the same in the tech section. Is there something I'm missing here?
Click to expand...

yep your right nevermind. i didnt realize they were the same I assumed the viper specs would allow for more movement. haha My Bad!
Click to expand...

The stock Viper specs are indeed different, as described in the Viper factory supplementary service manual (images below):

Viper Sheave Alignment.jpg Viper Sheave Alignment2.jpg
 
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